This invention relates generally to manufacturing components, and more specifically to methods and assemblies for manufacturing components.
Accurate manufacturing of components may be a significant factor in determining both manufacturing timing and cost. For example, accurate manufacturing of a component may be a significant factor affecting an overall cost of an assembly including the component, as well as subsequent modifications, repairs, and inspections of the component. During manufacturing of some components, cooling fluid may be discharged toward the machining zone to facilitate cooling the component during machining and thereby avoid heat damage to the component. Cooling fluid may also facilitate cooling machine tools to thereby avoid heat damage thereto. Moreover, cooling fluid may facilitate removing debris, for example shavings from the component and/or a mixture of shavings and cooling fluid, from the manufacturing zone. In addition, for at least some known machining processes, components may be coupled to a fixture that is supported from below. As a result, debris from the machining process can collect on the fixture and the component. Such debris may get in the way of manufacturing tools trying to access the component for, for example, machining or inspection. Moreover, debris accumulated on the fixture may get in the way of a new component being coupled to the fixture for manufacture thereof. As a result, an accuracy of the manufacturing process performed on the component may be decreased, thereby possibly increasing a cost and time of manufacture. Moreover, such debris may increase an amount of maintenance required to keep the fixture clean for accurately locating components. Furthermore, debris collected on the fixture and/or other components of a machine manufacturing the component may damage the fixture and/or such other components, which may an amount of maintenance to the fixture and/or such other components to avoid damage thereto.
Additionally, some known manufacturing machines vibrate during operation thereof, for example, due to movement of components of the machine. For example, some known receptacles that feed components to the machine, sometimes referred to as “hoppers”, vibrate to facilitate orientating the components. Vibration of machine components may sometimes be transmitted, for example through a frame of the machine, to tools that perform a manufacturing process on the component and/or fixtures that hold the component during the manufacturing process. Vibration of the tools and/or fixtures may decrease an accuracy of the manufacturing process, and thereby increase manufacturing time and cost.